flxfmodfandomcom-20200215-history
Trent's Journal
The journal that Freelancer Edison Trent kept during the Nomad War. Prelude Departure from Bretonia I've finally decided to leave Bretonia and try my luck in the Border Worlds. Despite what Tobias says, I can't sit around Leeds for the rest of my life and fix up other people's ships while more and more alien ruins are being discovered. They say that only 11 percent of the Border Worlds have been charted yet and hundreds of unknown planets are awaiting discovery. I'm starting this personal Neural Net Log to keep track of my travels and adventures. Arrival to the Sigma Systems After two weeks of travel, I finally managed to get to the Sigma system cluster. The trip through the Independent Worlds turned out to be much more dangerous than I thought. I was lucky several times that police patrols happened to be in the area when pirates wanted to blast me out of the stars. Anyway, word has it that there are a number of uncharted systems in this area of space. I will try to find out more information. Update from Sigma It's been six weeks since my last entry. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out anything about the alien ruins or uncharted systems. Very frustrating. The only thing I've heard was that there's been sightings of strange ships out near Sigma 17. Who knows. The good news is that I've managed to hook up with a captain of a Republican Shipping convoy. He's transporting a large shipment of Boron from Mainz to Honshu, but wants to keep the profits for himself. We agreed to meet on Kurile tomorrow. We'll see, maybe luck is on my side this time. Boron King Well, I did the deal. I'm now the proud owner of over a ton of Boron. I put all my savings into this deal. It's not entirely legal, but here in the Border Worlds, nobody really pays too much attention to this. I've been in contact with a man named Lonnigan, apparently a hired gun representing Samura Heavy Industries. He says his clients might be interested in the shipment. The Deal of a Lifetime I met Lonnigan as planned on Kurile yesterday and we came to an agreement on the price. The plan is to meet on Freeport 7 tomorrow to seal the deal on the ore shipment. If everything works out they'll owe me a million credits. It's the deal of a lifetime. The Destruction of Freeport 7 I still can't quite believe it. Lonnigan and I had just signed the deal when the attack occurred. We barely made it out alive. From the time the alert started, we only had a few moments before the station blew up. Hundreds of people weren't so lucky. I actually had to carry Lonnigan to the life pod because a bulkhead collapsed during the attack and hit him in the head. He's been unconscious ever since. The medics assure me that he'll recover. I certainly hope so. We're currently on a rescue ship en route to Manhattan but things aren't looking so good. I lost my ship and my ore shipment blew up with the rest of the station. All I have left is 500 credits. That wouldn't even buy me a ticket back to Leeds on a waste disposal freighter. Arrival on Manhattan Well, after several days of travel, we finally arrived on Manhattan. It was about time, the rescue ship was anything but a pleasant experience. The other eight survivors simply wouldn't stop talking about what had happened on Freeport 7. Speculations were running wild, and just about everybody was accused at one point or another. Some were convinced Chancellor Niemann was behind the attack, and others accused Governor Tekagi. A Krueger rep assured me that Samura was the only possible group that had an interest in destroying Freeport 7. After a whole lot of useless debate, the majority seemed to agree in the end that The Order was behind it. Anyway, I have to say that Manhattan is everything that Tobias made it out to be: a single giant city that covers almost the entire planet. They say that over 220 million people live here - unbelievable. The medics just took Lonnigan to intensive care in Medical. They said it'll take a while until he's released. No matter how long it takes, I'll stay in Manhattan until he recovers. After all, we had signed the deal already. In the meantime, I should find a job. My 500 credits won't last long. Maybe there is someone in the bar who could give me a lead. Adventures in Liberty A Liberty Ale Nice, after all I've been through. The bar here doesn't even carry a Sidewinder Fang. The bartender served me a Liberty Ale - definitely the only one I'll ever drink - but after talking for a while, he gave me something else, which was at least decent. He pointed me to a Liberty Security Force officer who might have a job for me. Her name is Jun'ko Zane. She's talking to some guy right now. I guess it's okay for me to interrupt and see if she has something for me. A Job Offer I talked to her. At first she seemed pretty annoyed that I interrupted her conversation, but after she heard that I was on Freeport, she was a lot nicer. Seems like I could be in luck! She's looking for a freelancer right now and said that she'd be in the equipment room later. I also have to remember to call her Juni, not Jun'ko. I'll definitely look her up - it sounds promising. Offer Declined I looked up Juni in the equipment room. She offered me an old and pretty crappy ship and a few thousand credits if I help escort a convoy of Food and medical supplies. Right now I'm not really interested, but shes said the offer would still stand if I come back later. She was certainly not pleased that I turned her down and told me that she's my best chance for getting a ship. She could well be right. We'll see. Offer Accepted I took the job. Juni offered me an old surplus Starflier and a few thousand credits. The ship is old and doesn't have jump gate access, but it's better than nothing. As long as I'm waiting for Lonnigan to recover, I don't mind hanging around in the New York System for a while. The mission itself seems easy enough: escort a convoy of Food and medical supplies from Ft. Bush to Pittsburgh. I don't really know where any of these places are, but she said the mission should be easy. I'm supposed to hook up with the mission CO King in space above Manhattan. Juni said my ship will be moved to the launch pad. All I have to do is get ready and launch into space. Destruction of the RNC Donau Am I some sort of magnet for catastrophes? First Freeport 7 is destroyed while I'm on it, now I launch from one of the safest places in the colonies, the capitol of Liberty, and a visiting Rheinland dignitary gets killed. I'm really starting to wonder. I know that I was looking for excitement and adventure when I left Leeds, but this has been a bit much lately. Anyway, King says that duty calls and that we have to rendezvous with the transports near Ft. Bush. He's uploaded the coordinates of the first Trade Lane to my Neural Net. I guess it's time to get going. Rendezvous with the USV Brandt Everything's good so far. King and I are in formation with the transport convoy. Everybody here is pretty shaken about the attack on Schultzky. To top it all off, it seems the mission is quite a bit more dangerous than Juni made it out to be. The captain of the USV Brandt says that several convoys have come under attack en route to Pittsburgh in the last weeks. Liberty Rogues are hiding in the debris field surrounding the planet and are attacking convoys to and from Pittsburgh. We have to be careful. Ambush in the Debris Field That was everything but easy! I think I've been had! Turns out that this entire escort assignment to Pittsburgh was a covert operation by the LSF! The transport convoy was a ruse to draw the Liberty Rogues out of hiding. Well, that certainly worked - we barely made it out alive! King wants to go out again to search for a suspected Rogue base somewhere in the debris field. I signed up for the deal. I certainly don't want to sit around on Pittsburgh. This has got to be one of the most desolate and sad places I've ever seen. King promised me that it would be worth it. He's waiting for me in space above Pittsburgh. Rescue of the XT-19 Prison Ship King and I hooked up with LSF patrol Epsilon 2 near Pittsburgh and had just started our search pattern when prison ship XT-19 sent a mayday. We immediately changed course and found the prison ship badly damaged and under attack by Rogue fighters. Good thing that we were in the area or that prison ship almost certainly would have been history. Anyway, we managed to destroy the Rogue ships. Patrol Epsilon 2 is staying here to protect XT-19 in case more Rogues show up. King and I will continue to search for the hidden Rogue base. The search pattern is in our Neural Net, and King told me to take the lead. Rescue of LSF Beta 4 After we left the prison ship, King and I flew along the edge of the debris field heading toward our first search grid when we received another mayday, this time from the LSF fighter Beta 4. The ship was being chased out of the debris field by several pirate fighters. We managed to fight off the Rogues. Not a minute too early since Beta 4 was badly damaged. The pilot told the story of how his wing was destroyed in a nearby particle cloud. King believes that they had stumbled upon the hidden Rogue base. We have the coordinates, and King wants me to take the lead. THis could get rough. Destruction of the Liberty Rogue Base We did it! The Rogue base has been destroyed! Not to sound cocky, but we managed to hold off a small fleet of Rogue ships - not to mention that we took out those vicious weapon platforms. King and I held them off until several LSF wings arrived and finished them off with torpedoes. Pretty impressive! Anyway, King has uploaded coordinates to Pittsburgh. It's time to head back. Freelancing Great! I risk my life for the LSF to take out this Rogue base here in New York and then King doesn't even make good on the drink he promised me. Nice partner. Well, at least he transferred the money. I can't wait to upgrade this ship, or as King likes to call it, this pile of junk. At the very least I want some better weapons. The Rogues weren't that tough, but if I run into some stronger opposition, I need some better firepower. Juni called in and told me that President Jacobi has ordered a full investigation into the assassination of Admiral Schultzky. Not surprisingly, it looks like The Order is behind it all. Juni said she'd have more work for me soon. In the meantime, she wants me to spread my wings and take a few missions here in New York. No kidding given that my ship doesn't have jump gate access. I couldn't get out of this system even if I wanted to. Besides, I'm definitely going to wait for Lonnigan to recover. I want my money, damn it! Anyway, King told me that there should be a Deep Space rep on Pittsburgh that has a mission for me. We'll see. Taking on small jobs like that should keep me busy until Juni calls me back. Category:History